After a poor start left him fifth on the opening lap of the 12-lap race the St-Hyacinthe, Que. rider charged up to second on lap two and then chased down leader Will Hornblower, taking the lead on lap eight. He pulled clear for a 2.095-sec. victory on the Racingphil.com / Pete’s Superbike Kawasaki ZX-6R.

Sarnia, Ont.’s Hornblower took second on his Yamaha YZF-R6 and St-Jerome, Que.’s Jean-Francois Aubin completed the podium on the Ricky Bobby Racing Suzuki GSX-R600.

Masse’s performance was similar to his effort in the opening round of the Amateur Sport Bike series at Shannonville Motorsport Park two weeks ago, when he also fought his way up to the front of the field. As at Shannonville, he was awarded the Performance Under Gear Performer of the Race Award for his effort.

Such was Masse’s superiority over the class that his fastest lap of the race, a 47.423 on lap five, was over half a second quicker than the next best effort, which came from Hornblower. Masse’s time was just off the new class record of 47.386 he had set in taking the pole for the race on Saturday, when he was over a second clear of the field.

Masse now leads the class standings with 107 points to the 84 of Aubin and Hornblower’s 73.

Hornblower did well to take his first national podium finish in the class. The former Honda CBR125R Challenge race winner had qualified third and got into the lead off the start, opening up a lead of 2.2 secs. by lap two.

Aubin ran third all the way, although throughout the race he was chased by a pack of four other bikes. He crossed the line just ahead of Hugo Fournier’s Yamaha YZF-R6, which had qualified second, the Pete’s Superbike / LAS Suspension / Michel Brossard Suzuki GSX-R600 of Simon Hamel and Luke Bauer’s Yamaha, respectively.

Maritime up-and-comer Austin Shaw-O’Leary had been part of this scrap but lost touch on lap eight and finished seventh aboard his GoLo Racing / Dua Motorsports Honda CBR600RR.

The race had been originally scheduled for 16 laps but was shortened after a red flag came out for a crash by Marco Sousa on lap one. The Schomberg, Ont. racer was not seriously hurt in the incident.